Football Hooliganism - South America - Argentina

Argentina

Although in Argentine football violence was already present from the beginning (late 19th century), the organized groups (barras bravas) appeared in the 1950s (barras bravas of Independiente, San Lorenzo de Almagro, Lanús, Rosario Central, Vélez Sarsfield, Racing, etc.) and 1960s (barras bravas of Belgrano, Boca Juniors, River Plate, etc.), and continued to grow in the coming decades. Every major and minor football club in Argentina has a corresponding barra brava, and all are violent. In this country there are the largest and strongest organized supporter groups in the world, and the most powerful of them are the barras bravas of Independiente (La Barra Del Rojo) followed by the barra bravas of Boca Juniors and Newell's Old Boys.

The first murder related with the Argentine football occurred on 2 November 1924 in Montevideo (Uruguay), after the final match of the South American Championship of this year between Uruguay and Argentina. In the Colón Hotel (where the Argentina national football team was staying) broke out a fight of Uruguay supporters and Argentine fans and footballers. Consequentially, a Uruguayan fan died.

On 14 May 1939 at the stadium of Lanús (in the city of Lanús, in the Greater Buenos Aires), the violence claimed its first fatality in Argentine territory. In a match of the minor divisions of Boca Juniors and the local team, after a foul by a player of Lanús, players began to fight. Seeing this, the Boca Juniors fans wanted to tear down the fence and invade the pitch, prompting the police to fire shots to disperse them. But a police officer named Luis Estrella shot into the stands, killing two spectators: Luis López and Oscar Munitoli, a minor of 9 years.

But this violence was not only among fans, footballers or the police, but also against the referees. On 27 October 1946, during a match between Newell's Old Boys and San Lorenzo de Almagro at Newell's Old Boys stadium (in the city of Rosario), local fans tried to strangle the referee Osvaldo Cossio. The match was tied on two goals when Cossio annulled a goal of the premises, and the third goal of San Lorenzo de Almagro in the next play made worsen the situation. Averaging 89 minutes of the game, several Newell's Old Boys fans entered the pitch, hit the umpire and tried to hang him with his own belt.

But this phenomenon suffered a major transformation in the late 1950s. The journalist Amílcar Romero sets 1958 as the beginning of the current barras bravas (although some had already existed for several years), with the murder by the police of Mario Alberto Linker (in a Vélez Sársfield - River Plate match at the José Amalfitani stadium). Because of the murder of this fan of Vélez Sársfield, in October 1958, the society notes the existence of this organized groups (the barras bravas). The so-called "industrialization of football" was the kickoff for this organization, because needed to control all aspects involved in the game. Before the emergence of these groups, when a team played as a visitor, was pressured by rival fans. This prompted the organization of the barras bravas in response to that pressure:

In Argentinian football, it was well established that if you played as the visiting team, you were inexorably in a tight spot. Although they were not barras bravas as we know them today, local fans would pressure you, and the police, when not looking the other way, would pressure you as well. That had to be offset by a doctrine that in the next decade became common currency: the only means by which to neutralize any effectual group with a reputation and capacity for violence, is with another, closer-knit group with as great, or greater, reputation for violence. —Amílcar Romero,

In this way, each club began having his barra brava, which was funded by the leaders of the institution. These groups were given their tickets and paid trips to the stadium, adding later other forms of financing. But the access to these "benefits" by the barra brava depended of the hierarchy inside her. For have prestige in the barra brava, had to be violent, so they began to increase the number of dead.

After the death of Linker, in Argentine football began a phase marked by "habituation" to the violence of the barras bravas, and an increase in the number of deaths. According to Amílcar Romero, between 1958 and 1985 are produced in Argentina 103 deaths related to football violence, that is, on average one every three months. However, it also clarifies that the origin of such deaths is not always confrontation in the stadium, and go from the premeditated clash between barras bravas outside the sporting venues, police repression against disorder, infighting in a barra brava or "accidents", it analysis tends to show some kind of negligence or violation of safety standards.

In 1964 more than 300 football fans died and another 500 were injured in Lima (Peru) in a riot during an Olympic qualifying match between Argentina and Perú in 24 May. On 11 April 1967 in Argentina, before a match between Huracán and Racing de Avellaneda, a Racing fan of 15 years died murdered by the Huracán barra brava at the Tomás Adolfo Ducó stadium. Over 70 Boca Juniors fans died in 1968 when crowds attending a Superclásico in Buenos Aires stampeded after youths threw burning paper onto the terraces and the exit (Puerta 12) was locked. In Argentina, one fan was killed and 12 people injured, including six police officers when fans of Racing Club de Avellaneda and Club Atlético Independiente clashed in February 2002. An Independiente fan was shot dead and another fan was shot in the back and hospitalised when about 400 rival fans fought outside Racing Clubs Estadio Juan Domingo Perón in Avellaneda before the match. Between 70 and 80 people were arrested as a result. The match started late when Independiente fans threw a smoke bomb at Racing Club goalkeeper, Gustavo Campagnuolo. That same weekend, 30 people were arrested and 10 police officers injured when fighting broke out at a match between Estudiantes de La Plata and Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata in La Plata.

From the 1980s the nuclei of the biggest barras bravas began to attend the matches of the Argentina national football team in the FIFA World Cups. That caused fights against supporters of other countries (sometimes were hooligans or ultras) and between themselves Argentine barras bravas. Also, in the 1980s and the 1990s were recorded the highest levels of violence in the history of the Argentine football, and there was a new phenomenon: the internal fragmentation of the barras bravas. It was produced by the emergence of sub-groups with own names inside the barras bravas. Sometimes these sub-groups fought among themselves to have the power within the barra brava to which they belonged.

An example of the violence of this years was the Roberto Basile's death. Before the start of a match between Boca Juniors and Racing in 1983 in the Bombonera stadium, this Racing supporter died after being pierced in the neck by a flare thrown from the Boca Juniors stand.

In 1997 a member of La Guardia Imperial (barra brava of Racing de Avellaneda) was murdered by an Independiente supporter. In 2001, other supporter of Racing was killed, and the barra brava of Independiente was the main suspect. Independiente and Racing (both from the city of Avellaneda, in the Greater Buenos Aires) have a huge rivalry (they form the Avellaneda Derby), the second most important in Argentina but maybe the fiercest (noteworthy that their stadiums are apart only for about 300 meters).

A 2002 investigation into football hooliganism in Argentina stated that football violence had become a national crisis, with about 40 people murdered at football matches in the preceding ten years. In the 2002 season, there had been five deaths and dozens of knife and shotgun casualties. At one point the season was suspended and there was widespread social disorder in the country. The first death in 2002 was at a match between fierce rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate. The match was abandoned and one Boca Juniors fan was shot dead. Boca Juniors, one of the largest clubs in Argentina, may have the largest barra brava element in the country (it is similar to the barras bravas of Independiente and River Plate), with their self-styled leader, Rafael Di Zeo, claiming in 2002 that they had over 2000 members (however there are doubts about the reliability of this information). In 2004, while driving up to Rosario to watch their side play Rosario Central, Los Borrachos del Tablón (River's Barra Bravas) confronted a bus of Newell's firm (one of the big rival firms) on Highway 9, in a battle that killed two Newell's fans. Up to this day, some members of Los Borrachos still face charges because of the deaths.

In 2005, a footballer, Carlos Azcurra, was shot and seriously wounded by a police officer, when rival fans rioted during a Primera B Nacional match between local Mendoza rivals (but not a derby) San Martín de Mendoza and Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba.

During the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, there was a confrontation between 6 members of the barra brava of Independiente and 16 members of the barras bravas of Boca Juniors and Defensa y Justicia (both were together) in Czech Republic (country where were housed the three barras bravas). As a result of the fight, a supporter of Boca Juniors had to be hospitalized.

In 2007, during the match of the promotion/relegation playoff of the 2006–2007 season between Nueva Chicago and Tigre (in the Nueva Chicago's stadium), broke out a fight between the barras bravas of both teams because, when a penalty was sanctionaty for Tigre (who was winning the match 2-1, a result that relegated to Nueva Chicago to the Second division) in the minute 92, the barra brava of Nueva Chicago invaded the pitch and ran on direction to the stand occupied by the supporters of Tigre for attack them. After this, were serious riots near the stadium (not only caused by the barras bravas, but also by ordinary people), and as a result of it, a fan of Tigre died.

On 19 March 2010 in a bar of Rosario, the ex leader of the Newell's Old Boys barra brava (Roberto "Pimpi" Camino) was shot and later died in a hospital of that city. Camino and his sub-group lead the barra brava from 2002 to 2009, year in which were expelled from it to be defeated by another sub-group, who currently dominates La Hinchada Más Popular (name of the Newell's Old Boys barra brava). Some members of the now main sub-group are the suspects of the murder, and the bar's owner are suspected of helping them.

In the early morning of 4 July 2010 (the next day of the match between Argentina and Germany for quarter-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup) in Cape Town, South Africa, there was a fight between some integrants of the barras bravas of Independiente and Boca Juniors. During the brawl, one member of the Boca Juniors barra brava lost consciousness after being brutally beating by the Independiente fanatics. He was admitted to a hospital in the city and died there on 5 July.

From 1924 to 2010 there were 249 deaths (250 with the Argentine recently died in South Africa) related to the Argentine football (if aren't counted the 300 dead in Perú in 1964).